Day 15, Falmouth to Penzance but ending up next door at Newlyn…. not by accident, but by design ( change of plan )….Sunday 10th June, 2018.

Day dawned in Falmouth at 10 past 5, a brilliant sunrise in the east, shades of blue slowly expanding with the light, warm and oh so so still…. not a breath of wind ! Yet another windless morning… our new wind turbine generator sadly both silent and still.

We are about to complete our sailing of the major part of the south coast of England… from Eastbourne westwards to Penzance in Cornwall … next to Lands End for goodness sake… and over the past two weeks since starting, the theme has been glassy, oily seas and very, very little wind. Today was a continuation of that theme.

Prior to departure at 8.15am…. showers and breakfast was had early, rubbish was taken to the bins, milk was purchased from a 6am opening Tesco Express and the boat was made ready for sea in an orderly and routine manner.

We sailed out of Falmouth Harbour past the Royal Navy supply ships, two super motor yachts… into the Carrick Roads of the River Fal. Sailing in this sense means “motoring” with the main sail up!! Like days before, the forecast winds of force 3 and 4 never appeared. The sea was a surreal oily sheen with no ripples or ruffles to disturb the surface.

This part of the British coast is punctuated by fine, outstanding headlands. We have Beachy Head in Sussex but Cornwall has the lions share of iconic headlands. So we past Saint Anthony Head, the Manacles, Black Head, and of course the most famous of all…. the Lizard…. a very very impressive view and lighthouse… at the point when Christine, in the cockpit, had her hand in the Greedy Box.

Over the course of a couple of hours, we both avoided the deadly rocks of the Boa, and crossed the width of Mounts Bay from east to west making good time. St. Michael’s Mount was observed close up on the starboard bow.

After a phone conversation with the Harbour Master of Penzance… we agreed to change our plans and head for the major Cornish fishing port of Newlyn. The mooring we had planned in Penzance was to be inside the “wet dock” but we were told that if we needed to leave the next day it would have to be 4am in the morning or way past 2pm in the afternoon.

We did not fancy a 4am departure for the Scilly Isles and 2pm was  far  too late… so we just went next door, to a pontoon at Newlyn where we could depart for St. Mary’s on the morrow at a time that suited us. So here we are right next door to Land’s End… our jumping off point into the Atlantic Ocean tomorrow. Scilly Isles here we come.